How do you leverage digital technologies and platforms to facilitate supplier innovation?

Suppliers are bombarded with requests for Scope 3 emissions data associated to existing operations delivering goods to customers. Then asked what and how the they plan to decrease the number of harmful emissions. Building an inventory and baseline is tough and requires an accurate snapshot of data. Strategy requires understanding how to assess it considering sustainability, reliability and affordability. While electrification may lower emissions, there are new end-to-end data tools with insights into existing shipping routes with a wider variety of alternative fuels and best practices. With this data, suppliers responsible for reporting can assess and deploy optimal alternatives to reduce lifecycle emissions for their customers.

Identify and segment your suppliers for innovation, consider their size, location, industry, technology, culture, and relationship. Once segmented, prioritize those that are best aligned with your innovation goals, have a track record of innovation, and collaboration. Investing in supplier innovation, you can gain a competitive advantage and drive growth for your business.

Digital Tech. can be used for the following areas related to Supplier Mgmt: * Suppliers self cert. - U can link the suppliers in the digital solution & whenever customers receive parts, then they will understand it is a DOL supplier. *Audits - Conduct digital Audits & closure of NCs can be done in a closed loop way. * Suppliers Rating - You can set a criterion like Quality, Cost, Delivery, Audits score, premium freight etc. Link this criteria with supplier rating apps, so that automatically ratings would be updated and notified to the relevant suppliers. U can also use it for Change Mgmt, PPAPs submission, NC Mgmt, SCARs etc. All these processes must be in sync and talk to each other, then only it will be a meaningful Digital lean journey!

To facilitate supplier innovation, organizations should identify the right digital technologies and platforms, foster a culture of innovation, use digital platforms for collaboration, collect and analyze data, encourage experimentation and prototyping, provide training and support, and establish feedback mechanisms. These steps help streamline the innovation process, identify areas for collaboration, and accelerate the process. It's crucial to continuously evaluate and adapt strategies to keep pace with changing technology and market dynamics. By fostering a culture of innovation, implementing digital platforms, and providing training, organizations can create a more innovative and efficient supply chain.